Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal.

To what extent do you agree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Smoking has become pressing problem among the young generation. A majority of people have been suffering from severe health issues due to smoking. Thus, some individuals believe that smoking should not be legally allowed. I will discuss possible causes behind this thought and its impact along with my opinion and possible solutions of this issue in the upcoming paragraphs

To start with, the repercussions of smoking and reasons behind making it illegal are as below. First and foremost is the passive smoking is major issue of smoking. Basically, people who have never smoked in life are suffering from serious lungs diseases due to the public smoking. Thus, innocent people who are not involved in smoking but still became victim of health issues due to passive smoking. However, government is generating the huge amount of income from the smokers by tax revenue. For instance, India have been generating 10% of tax revenue from the cigars and tobacco and impose higher tax on such harmful products. Hence, it will directly impact the country's revenue and economic development of a nation.

While there are also feasible alternatives rather than banning smoking. Firstly, the price of cigars should be decided by government authorities as indirectly they impose tax on such products. So on such smoking products higher tax should be imposed. For example, countries like Japan impose higher tax on products which are harmful for the citizen's health such as cigars, alcohol, vape and much more. Further, public smoking should be made illegal rather than the total ban. It can be done by either imposing higher fines on public smoking or implementing strict rules for smoking publicly.

To conclude, as per above mentioned points and feasible solutions for this issue I believe that public smoking should be made illegal rather than complete ban of smoking. It is best decision in the given situation as it will not only stop passive smoking but also government earns tax revenue from such smokers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the health impacts of smoking and the debate over a total ban versus regulation. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The introduction promises to discuss 'causes behind this thought' (the idea of banning smoking), but the body paragraphs focus more on the consequences of smoking and economic arguments. While a clear position is maintained—advocating for a partial ban rather than a total one—the argument regarding government revenue is slightly underdeveloped and could have been better integrated with the health-focused prompt. The response covers all parts of the task, but the depth of analysis is limited, keeping it at a solid Band 6 level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, and there is a logical progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'First and foremost', 'However', and 'To conclude'. However, some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'the repercussions of smoking and reasons behind making it illegal are as below'. Additionally, some sentences lack smooth flow, such as the repetitive use of 'due to' in the second paragraph. While the overall structure is coherent, the use of cohesive devices is not always flexible or natural, which is characteristic of a Band 6 performance.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'passive smoking', 'tax revenue', and 'feasible alternatives'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'pressing problem among the young generation' (a bit clunky) and 'not legally allowed' (instead of 'illegal'). The range of vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the message, but it lacks the precision and sophistication required for a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the huge amount', 'the cigars') and subject-verb agreement ('India have been generating'). Some sentences are fragmented or awkward, such as 'Thus, innocent people who are not involved in smoking but still became victim of health issues due to passive smoking.' These errors are noticeable and occasionally distract the reader, though they do not prevent the overall meaning from being understood. A greater focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would improve the score.

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